Learning how to become a computer programmer has never been easy or fun for most people. Some would even call it boring. But now they call it a board game.
Computer programmer Igor Kholodov has created a game that he says can entertain while teaching the basics of computer programming languages like Java or C++.
Kholodov first got the idea for the game in 1999 when he was trying to teach his son the basics of his profession. “I was fired up by my son’s interest and went to Toys “R” Us and the Discovery store hoping to find some educational toys and was surprised there was nothing out there.” After six years of development, Kholodov has finished making the game, called “c-jump.”
The board game turns players into skiers who must race down a mountain in the quickest way possible. With each roll of the die, players must follow instructions that are similar to computer program codes. Using basic math, players have to figure out which paths are open to them and then decide the fastest way to the finish line. The trick, however, is learning which paths are open to you using only programmer jargon like “if (X==1)” then you can take the green path or “while (X<4) you can take the orange path," where X is the roll of the die.
“It’s very similar to what a programmer does when they work with existing code and make decisions,” Kholodov said.
Although the approximately 30-minute game is educational, Kholodov says it’s “fun for the whole family and simple once you get a grasp of the rules.” The game is for players as young as 11 and costs $25 at the store or $21 if bought online.
Kholodov lives in Braintree, Massachusetts — 12 miles from MIT and eight miles from Harvard. Computer scientists in the area say they really like the game. Most of them got word of it through the renowned Games People Play, located at Harvard Square, currently the only brick-and-mortar shop selling the game.
Others, like Stephan Wessels of Omaha, Nebraska, have found the game online. Wessels came across c-jump on BoardGameGeek and found it so appealing to his background as a software developer that he had to buy it. What excites Wessels most is adapting the current game for lesser-known open-source programming languages like Squeak.
“I could tell from the board that it helps you learn to solve problems from a conditional perspective,” Wessels said. That, of course, is the very basis of computer programming.
Some hard-core board-game enthusiasts, however, aren’t impressed. Scott Alden, manager of BoardGameGeek.com, thinks the game is nothing more than a gimmick. Mostly, Alden isn’t sure if the game is any fun. “We see lots of these types of games that aren’t really that much fun to play and rely on some type of marketing gimmick to sell,” he said.
Although he suggested other computer-programming board games like Programmer’s Nightmare or RoboRally, Alden admitted that these games all require programming skills to play. To his knowledge, c-jump is the only game that teaches the basics of the profession.
Kholodov is excited about the possibility of breaking into the board-game industry. He is currently in business school and plans to turn his family business into a company. With any luck he might just get kids to whine to their parents before bedtime, “C’mon, can’t we play the computer-programming game just a little longer?”
